Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

Welcome to our new and improved comments, which are for subscribers only.
This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.
You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.

You will need to register before adding a comment.
Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.

Please be polite.
It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.
If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines, please report them.

School board approves contract for bus safety check training

A Wisconsin-based company will continue to train Knox County school security officers to do safety checks on school buses.

The Knox County school board approved a contract with Yellow Bus Transport Advisory on Wednesday for the company to prepare school security officers to earn commercial drivers' licenses with school bus endorsements.

Those licenses will allow the officers to do safety checks in which they ride on school buses and review drivers' procedures and driving skills, according to contract documents.

The training is $1,250 per trainee, but after five trainees the fee for the sixth is waived, according to the documents, and the expected cost would be $6,250 to train six officers.

Yellow Bus Transport trained the five officers who have been conducting the safety checks since January, but there is a need for more officers to be trained,said Russ Oaks, chief operating officer for Knox County Schools. He said the plan is to train six officers, but the contract would allow for more if needed.

The one-year contract could be extended for four years, one year at a time for a total of five years.

Safety checks are one of the multiple strategies the district has added since last summer to improve district transportation following a string of bus crashes, including a fatal crash on Asheville Highway in December 2014.

Oaks said that in the spring 2016 semester, safety checks were conducted on more than 130 buses, which is about half of the school buses for the district. The goal is for a driver to have a safety check about once every 18 months, Oaks said. He said the program is helping the district learn and gather feedback.

Plus, he said the district is working to hire someone in a new position focused on school bus training, as was recommended in an outside review of the district's transportation department.

Information from the safety checks can help that person see what training is needed, Oaks said.

He said he is unaware of any new bus contractors for the district since the schools canceled contracts with Mayes Bus Lines last month. However that doesn't mean more contractors won't be added, Oaks said.

Summer is the time when the transportation department evaluates routes and the six routes that formerly belonged to Mayes' drivers will be included in that process of adjustment, he said.

Read or Share this story: https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/education/2016/06/01/school-board-approves-contract-for-bus-safety-check-training/91000066/